The IDEA Center grew out of the IDEA Club at the University of San Diego, and now is seeking to reach out to students on other campuses, to promote "a better understanding of the evidence for intelligent design theory, and how it supports a Christian world view." Publicity for the conference made it appear an opportunity for open dialogue, for students and others to explore their questions of the relationship between creation and evolution. Knowing something about the intelligent design movement, and reading the releases skeptically, I expected it would not be. I and went prepared to find out just what "good-spirited discussion and a better understanding of the creation-evolution issue" would look like.

In the meantime, I began a conversation with the zealous youth worker, so that I could go prepared to listen to what the students attending the conference were thinking and asking. When I arrived on the Friday, I deliberately sat at a table of young adults. In the course of that evening and all day Saturday, we watched a lengthy video, Unlocking the Mystery of Life, and heard speakers on philosophy (Paul Nelson), apologetics (Jay Wesley Richards), the origins of life (Edward Peltzer), and the Cambrian explosion (Paul Chien). Break out sessions offered more critiques of the alleged implicit "religion" of neo-Darwinism, more "intelligent design theory", more chances to watch videos, and help with starting your own IDEA club.

One student, an agnostic with a double major in psychology and philosophy, commented that she came with an open mind, but found the presentations on the whole to be largely negative: no positive case was made for a designer. She also identified that many of the presenters, while espousing religious neutrality, seemed to assume a conservative Christian audience. A Roman Catholic student of philosophy was concerned that the "intelligent design" theorists seemed to be redefining science. "I'm not ready to throw out falsifiability," he commented. He questioned at length the various speakers' methodology in apologetics and natural theology, and concluded his dissent, addressing me, by saying, "I'm like you, I'm a committed Christian, and just hate it when people like this make Christians look stupid." A student of marine biology was unconvinced by Michael Behe's final presentation on "irreducible complexity", and embarrassed that her boyfriend, a psychology major, was taken in by it.

All the insights and questions of these students are good news. Apparently the IDEA Center's efforts to recruit advocates for "intelligent design" among youth and young adults, and to bring an IDEA club soon to a campus near you, will not be easy.

I left the conference clearer about the theological shortcomings and scientific vacuity of the "intelligent design" movement. I also left wondering what we Episcopalians are doing to offer our younger members a solid grounding in how a theology of creation and a scientific understanding of evolution work together, each enriching the other. Most of the students I talked with at the IDEA Conference had no idea that there were scholars of evolution and religion involved in a positive dialogue.